Kuro Cho: The Black Butterfly
by watchingpaintdry
Summary: A treaty between Grass and Leaf is reached, and with it, an arranged marriage! What's Shino going to do when his new bride arrives in Konoha, and the two can't stand each other? Will the two bug masters ever come to terms, or are they already doomed?
1. The Beggining of the End

**GEUSS WHAT????**

**I'M REPOSTING THIS!!!!!**

**YAY!!!**

**And now for something completely different…**

X-X-X-X-X

Why did treaties always have to include marrying two poor saps who wanted nothing to do with each other?

Why did treaties always have to ruin the lives of people who wanted nothing to do with the stupid things?

How had this happened to him?

Why, Kami, did it have to be him?

X-X-X-X-X

"You are aware that I detest your guts to hellfire and back, correct?" asked the young woman, who sat on an enormous black stallion, who snorted, as though affirming the snarled words. Her father, a man in his mid forties, leaned heavily on the wooden fence a few feet away from her, his head itching to fall comically into his hands. Sighing, he looked up, his brown eyes, which matched his hair, meeting the black glass of his daughter's sunglasses.

"It's the best we can do, Kazumi." He said plaintively. His daughter was a strong willed and fierce tempered young woman, prone to stubbornness, and his wife had been the ONLY one who had been able to talk any sense into the girl. Now, he was praying to ANY god that was listening that she didn't blow the whole treaty up in their faces, especially after all of the trouble they had gone through to get this far.

The girl snorted, in strange imitation of the horse, then turned the temperamental creature and clicked her tongue, urging him into a trot. The great black wolf that had been lying in the grass beside it rose to her feet, loping lazily after them, even as, with a shriek, an enormous blue-grey peregrine, easily the size of an eagle, rose from a nearby tree and joined the small group.

Shin Kawada sighed in exasperation, watching as his daughter and her strange guardians disappeared from view.

He didn't seem to notice the black butterfly perched gracefully on his shoulder.

X-X-X-X-X

"Excuse me?" Shino stared at his father, even though it really wasn't obvious, given that both of them wear wearing dark glasses, but the tone of his voice was enough to show his disbelieving anger.

His father rolled his eyes behind his own sunglasses, glad, for the first time, that they were there, though they made reading his son slightly on the difficult side. However, he knew Shino enough to tell when he was mad. And boy, was he mad. Not just mad, fuming, if the look he might not be giving his father behind his glasses was any indication.

He sighed.

This was not going well.

X-X-X-X-X

"It's bad enough that I'm being married to some loser from Leaf, but you want to take the WHOLE FREAKING FAMILY ALONG FOR THE WEDDING???!!!!!" Kazumi shrieked, towering over her father's much shorter and smaller form in her indignant anger. Shin was trying his best not to cower, but was failing miserably at the withering look his daughter was boring through his head.

"Now, Kazu, lets be reasonable…" he began, trying to placate her, but she wouldn't hear it. Instead, the slamming of her bedroom door reverberated throughout the house for several moments before Shin realized that his daughter had just removed herself from his presence.

He sighed, slumping into a chair, head in hands. His sister, a slim woman, with several smaller kids of her own, all of which were in bed already, came to stand beside him, a soothing hand on his shoulder.

"What do I do now?" he asked, raising hopeless eyes to the younger woman.

She smiled wryly.

"What else is there to do?" she asked.

"Leave as soon as possible." He said.

X-X-X-X-X

Shino was sulking. For the first time in his relatively short life, he was actually sulking. Hinata stared at his father as he explained why her and Kiba's teammate was currently locked in his room, bugs buzzing around the door angrily whenever anyone came near.

"Wait, who is he being married to, again?" Kiba asked, sipping the tea that they had been offered, Akamaru slurping water from a nearby bowl. Shino's dad shook his head in exasperation.

"She's a young noblewoman from hiding in Grass. Their marriage will seal the treaty that Konoha just signed with her country, as the treaty itself is slightly on the shaky side. Anyway, I had hoped that Shino wouldn't take this too hard, but, well, you've seen for yourself how well it went down with him." He finished, shrugging in dejected hopelessness.

"When is she coming?" asked Hinata.

"Within the month." Said Shino's father, raising his head to look at the Hyuuga heir.

"They are to be wed by May."

X-X-X-X-X

The caravan was of considerable size, considering that there was only one family traveling within it. However, as every aunt, uncle, and cousin had been invited to the Head Family's eldest child's wedding, there were at least twelve horse drawn wagons making their way over the border of the land of fire.

However, the most elaborate carriage, which was situated towards the front of the procession, was empty. It's supposed occupant, said Head Family's eldest child, was several hundred feet off the trail, ahead of the caravan, her dark glasses flashing in the scarce patches of light filtering in through the forest trees. The great black wolf still padded beside her, the eagle sized peregrine falcon perched easily on her shoulder, even as the black stallion beneath her plodded along almost silently over the fallen leaves.

She turned to catch a glimpse of the caravan through the trees, making its slow way down the forest path. She sighed.

"You two can go hunt, I'll be fine with Jet." She said. The peregrine blinked her bright yellow rimmed eyes, then took flight with a loud screech. The wolf tilted her head up towards the girl, then also disappeared, melting into the dappled forest underbrush as easily as a ghost.

Kazumi Kawada growled in low frustration as she looked back at the caravan again. Her father could be a real pain in the ass.

X-X-X-X-X

**I don't own…so there…**

**L8R**

**WPD**


	2. Dance of a Thousand Deaths

X-X-X-X-X

Kazumi stood over the poor stable boy, the snarl bubbling up from her throat probably scaring him more than the actual wolf baring her teeth at him from beside her master. The freckle faced red-head scooted away from the black clad, sunglass wearing girl who was slowly advancing on him, the shredded remains of the crop he had been using on her horse a moment previous lying at her feet. When she spoke, it was in a deadly whisper.

"If I ever see your face again, you're going to end up like that," she indicated the remains of the crop on the ground.

"Do I make myself clear?" she asked, dragging him to his feet by his collar, before throwing him forcefully from her person. He scampered away, beating the hastiest retreat possible for someone of commoner level skills. She snarled at his retreating back before turning to her horse. He was still standing in his stall, as though nothing had happened, but he snorted indignantly in the ruined crops direction all the same. She chuckled.

"That's for not biting him sooner," she teased softly, before picking up his brush and beginning to work the tangles from his mane and tail.

X-X-X-X-X

"Shino, you can go now, or later, but you will go." Said his father from the other side of the door, his bugs swarming around him in a desperate attempt to keep his son's own annoyed familiars from doing any real damage. A muffled voice from the other side of the door was his only answer.

"What?" he asked, raising his voice slightly. "I can't hear you."

The door to his son's room was nearly torn from its hinges as it was wrenched open. Shino's angry face, minus the glasses, glared up at his father. Enunciating every word carefully, but still using the entire weight of his anger in every syllable, the young bug master ground out his answer through his teeth.

"Fine. As long as this torture ends as soon as possible. Then. So. Be. It." He snarled, grabbing his coat and cramming his glasses onto his face before heading for the door, angrily slamming his own shut on his way out.

Shibi Aburame rolled his eyes to the heavens.

"Why, Kami? Why?"

X-X-X-X-X

"The young master?" asked the stable hand, blinking at the strange procession. Tsunade stood next to Sakura, as the both were accompanying Shino and Shibi on their first introduction to Shino's fiancé. After all, this was a matter of national security. No, really.

The startled servant pointed in the direction of the stables, then went back to his task of scrubbing buckets in the gutter outside the mansion the Kuwada family had been given, as part of the agreement. Well, more like the Eldest Child, Shino's soon to be wife, had been given, as it supposedly belonged to her.

Sticking her head through the doorway into the dimly lit stable, Sakura called out around the large heads now looking at them curiously over stall doors.

"Hello? Anyone here?"

"What do you want?" asked an annoyed voice from above them. They all looked up to see a young woman, dressed in a black work shirt, jeans, boots, and dark sunglasses standing in the rafters above them, which was being used for hay storage. Her black hair had been tied up and wrapped with some sort of scarf, and she was also wearing thick hide gloves. She was sweat soaked and dirty. She tilted her head to the side, one hand wrapped around a support beam the only thing keeping her from falling to the ground floor.

"Yeah," said Sakura. "We were looking for Kawada-san."

"Oh," said the girl, leaping down easily to stand in front of them, all with the grace of a fully fledged shinobi. The others all tensed, none of them having sensed that she had any such training. She walked over to a hay bale she had tossed to the ground earlier and slit the twine around it with a kunai, before beginning to distribute it to the eagerly waiting horses.

"My father's probably back in the house somewhere, making arrangements and whatever." She said, her back to them as she stroked the nose of a huge black stallion, who nuzzled her shoulder roughly before she pulled out a carrot and fed it to him. Sakura was the first to break the silence.

"You're the Kawada family's eldest child?" she asked, incredulity in her voice. The girl turned to her, cocking her head to the side.

"Yeah, what's it to you?" she asked, rather snappishly.

"Uh, well…it's just…that is to say…" the Hokage's apprentice was grasping for words, desperately trying to fix the blunder she had just walked straight into, like an unseen tree.

"Continue, please. No one's stopping you." The girl said, her voice dripping with icy sarcasm. Sakura turned abruptly to Shino, intent on turning the failing conversation over to him, and stopped dead in her tracks. The bug master was gaping at the girl before them, mouth fully hanging open as he regarded her in disbelief over the top of his shades, which had slid down to the end of his nose.

"What are you lookin' at, short stuff?" she growled, her mouth twisting into a frown. Shino quickly snapped his mouth shut, pushing his shades back up onto his face before replying.

"Nothing, just wondering when they decided for me that I was gay." He snapped. The girl turned a bright scarlet color.

"You must be the Loser they set me up with." She said, her voice dangerously quiet. "Well, I wasn't aware that walking anthills qualified for the Academy these days."

"I must say the same, though judging by your appearance, you must work for some poor sap that lost everything on the Glory Days." Shino shot back, referring to an old term for Whore houses.

The girl smiled sweetly at him.

"It's been a pleasure meeting you, as well, Bug-san. Until the next time we are unfortunate enough to cross paths." She tilted her head slightly in his general direction, then turned on her heel, a loud whistle their only warning before the giant black wolf that had been lazing in the corner chased them from the premises.

X-X-X-X-X

"What the hell was that? She's rude, uncivilized, and completely unsuited for life as a shinobi! I don't care if she graduated top of her class, there is no way that thing is a ninja!" yelled Shino.

He and his father were standing across the room from each other, squared off for the biggest brawl any of the gathered party had ever seen. Sakura and Tsunade were mulling over how to fix the current fiasco, while Kiba and Hinata had come to try and calm Shino down, just a smidgen.

Suffice it to say, neither group was having any success, whatsoever.

X-X-X-X-X

"He's a pig-headed idiot from the next town over who wouldn't last a day in the fields! You expect me to marry some sap that just stands there like an ant hill? What the hell is this?! There is no way I'm marrying that loser!" Kazumi yelled, her ferocious anger making her tower over her father, who was backed up against the wall, despite his best efforts to stand his ground.

Suffice it to say, he had failed miserably.

X-X-X-X-X

**Well, aren't they sweet? They just love each other so much…and after just one meeting…they're the perfect couple…*snicker*…**

**Till next we meet…bug-san…**

**L8R**

**WPD**


End file.
